Argentina 2013: A Wonderful Hunt and Fantastic Vacation; The Magic of Iguazu Falls Part 4 “The Grand Adventure”

This part of the excursion was dubbed the “Grand Adventure” by our travel agent and I had no idea just how accurate that description would become.  We were about to take a boat right up to the base of the waterfall and hopefully stay far away enough for the waterfall itself to swamp the boat.  This was probably a crazy thing to do, but we were going to do it.  The first step was to put anything we did not want wet into a dry bag and seal it up tight.  Next, we were given type-I PFD’s (lifejackets) and instructed in putting them on.  We were then individually checked to make sure we had them on correctly.  After that, we were allowed to make our way onto the boat.

The four of us were at the end of the line so we ended up on the back of the boat.  That sort of suited me since the captain was back there also.  I figured if he was there, it was probably the safest place on the boat.  After finding a seat, I stowed my dry bag under the seat and started to cinch up my raincoat.  I pulled my hood up over my ball cap, pulled the drawstrings on the hood tight, and fastened the storm flap nice and tight under my chin.  Next the waist cord and bottom cord were drawn up tight and secured.  Lastly, I secured the zipper’s storm flap in place and was ready to go.  While I waited for everyone else to finish up, I took a little closer look at the boat.  It was sort of like a large zodiac in that it had two inflatable chambers with a hard bottom.  This boat had space for about 60 seats and two 200 hp. outboards on the back.  I deemed her worthy and I ready to go, or so I thought.

The ride from the dock to the base of the falls was pretty tame and there were a lot of cameras out taking pictures.  I was using my iPhone with a Lifeproof-brand waterproof case, and Janice had swapped her Nikon for an underwater camera.  Everyone was excited as the captain maneuvered the boat to a holding position just out from under the waterfall.  This was an incredible opportunity for some great pictures.  These angles were just not available from dry land in any shape or form.  The only problem I had was trying to keep everyone else’s heads and hands out of my pictures.  After a few minutes of station keeping, the captain starts to maneuver us closer to the falls.  While everyone else is putting up cameras, I switched my iPhone to video and prepared to enter the belly of the beast.  As we entered the maelstrom, I started to second guess my sanity as the water started to crash down on us with a force you would have to experience to believe.  I had enough sense to stow my phone before the water hit with its full force.  I reached for the grab bar on the back of the seat in front of me perhaps a second before we catch the full force of the water.  It was a total “waterout”.  A water out is to H₂O as a “whiteout” is to the frozen variation.

More waterfall videos on YouTube  http://www.youtube.com/user/setterrun